Chronic internal parasites & I'm at my wit's end - suggestions?

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Epsom salt bath update: I put my sick angel fish in a 5-gal bucket with 2 Tbsp of epsom salt and 2 gallons of water from his tank with plans of keeping him in there for 20 minutes. About 10-12 minutes in, he started swimming furiously into the sides of the bucket so I put him back in the main tank. Looks like he bashed his bottom lip up pretty bad but I turned off the lights, and after a few minutes, he seemed to shake it off and now is more or less back to normal (for him lately). Did a 15% water change, added in a dose of the PraziPro as well as 6 Tbsp of epsom salt - I know for a 55gal the recommendation would have been 11 but after Phantom's response to the bath I thought it would be better to let everybody get used to the stuff at a smaller dose first. The metronidazole should be here tomorrow or Monday so I'll do a much larger change then, dose with the Zole and add more epsom salts.

If anybody has any further suggestions or advise, please let me know.
 
Nothing "productive", just more of the stringy white stuff, though it's also been several weeks since he last ate.

So far every one seems to be handling the addition of the Epsom salts well, hopefully the Zole gets here soon. If that doesn't work I don't know what else to try.
 
You may want to change to this: fenbendazole-powder
I read an article on another site by a frustrated aquarist who also was having multiple bouts of internal parasites and the common meds ( Met and Proaz) not working. He switched to this and finally got rid of the problem. I found this med at a site called Ozark Mountain Survival Gear but the site seems to be having some issues ATM. Just google it to see where else you can get it from. I believe it is actually a sheep de-wormer.

That said, I have 1 Angel that seems to have worm issues from time to time. Ironically, it is one I raised from egg so it must have contracted the worms from another fish I had in the tank with him. Thankfully, he responded well to API's General Cure. But this is just the same meds that you have mentioned so it might be time to switch meds?

Hope this helps. (y)
 
Andy Sager said:
You may want to change to this: fenbendazole-powder
I read an article on another site by a frustrated aquarist who also was having multiple bouts of internal parasites and the common meds ( Met and Proaz) not working. He switched to this and finally got rid of the problem. I found this med at a site called Ozark Mountain Survival Gear but the site seems to be having some issues ATM. Just google it to see where else you can get it from. I believe it is actually a sheep de-wormer.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll definitely keep that stuff in mind! I'm going that the concentrated Zole will do the trick but agree is likely time to go a new route.
 
On friday I dipped my sick angel in a 1tbsp of Epsom salt in 1 gallon of water for 20 minutes. She tolerated it fine. I then added 300mg of metronidazole into 10 gallons of water. I heated the tank to 85 degrees and added a bubbler.
I use to keep discus and the simply discus forum has a really good disease and medication index. It said increasing the water temp can help make the metro more effective.
This morning my fish ate 2 blood worms. She continues to pick and spit out the rest but this is the first time in weeks she has even given any interest in food. I hope this behavior continues.
 
Also is this kind of issue I need to treat my main 60 gallon tank as well? Is it something that lives in my biofilter or water?
 
Salts, just..no. No need to add salts at all ever unless the inhabitants require a certain salinity. adding salts could actually make things worse.

Cichlids are particularly susceptible to hexamita also know as hole in the head. This is an internal parasite that results in head erosion, emaciation, spitting out foods, discharge, stringy white poop etc.

Mebbid hit it on the head (as usual).

Buy some Seachem metrodanazole. Empty food in a shallow lid. Get a cup of tank water and stir in one scoop of metrodanazole. Stir it up, use a pipette to soak the food in the lid with the mixture. Allow to dry, speed up process with a fan if need be. Feed the food for 3 days. Check for improvements.

In my experience the fish that are no longer eating need to be euthanised.

Hex is spread in discharge and feces so an internal parasite treatment may need to be added to the water column to catch and free swimming parasites.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice
 
Caliban07 said:
Salts, just..no. No need to add salts at all ever unless the inhabitants require a certain salinity. adding salts could actually make things worse.

Cichlids are particularly susceptible to hexamita also know as hole in the head. This is an internal parasite that results in head erosion, emaciation, spitting out foods, discharge, stringy white poop etc.

Mebbid hit it on the head (as usual).

Buy some Seachem metrodanazole. Empty food in a shallow lid. Get a cup of tank water and stir in one scoop of metrodanazole. Stir it up, use a pipette to soak the food in the lid with the mixture. Allow to dry, speed up process with a fan if need be. Feed the food for 3 days. Check for improvements.

In my experience the fish that are no longer eating need to be euthanised.

Hex is spread in discharge and feces so an internal parasite treatment may need to be added to the water column to catch and free swimming parasites.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice
Click to expand...
Yeah, i missed one of the problems though... the fish arent eating.
 
kirkland795 said:
On friday I dipped my sick angel in a 1tbsp of Epsom salt in 1 gallon of water for 20 minutes. She tolerated it fine. I then added 300mg of metronidazole into 10 gallons of water. I heated the tank to 85 degrees and added a bubbler.
I use to keep discus and the simply discus forum has a really good disease and medication index. It said increasing the water temp can help make the metro more effective.
This morning my fish ate 2 blood worms. She continues to pick and spit out the rest but this is the first time in weeks she has even given any interest in food. I hope this behavior continues.
Click to expand...


I'm assuming here that you have diet sorted out with feeding? It's not really my area but guessing since you had discus you would be well up on a varied diet for fussy eaters to prevent any issues.
 
Yes I feed frozen blood worms, brine shrimp occasionally, a frozen carnivore mix with beef heart and cobalt flake food that has probiotics. I'm thinking it must he a parasite that is working it's way around the tank.
 
Try a combination of Epsom salt, Malachite Green, Acriflavin, and formalin. I had the same problem recently, and I found that formula online from a very old very good fish breeder. It worked for my fish who had internal parasites and didn't respond to metro/prazipro. MAKE SURE DO NOT MIX METRONIDAZOLE WITH ANY ICK MED Do a big water change and wait a couple days, then try that treatment. The Acriflavin/MG you can find at Walmart called "ick cure" The MG/formalin they have at fish stores called Rid ich plus. Use them both at half strength for 5-6 days, and don't feed very much. I would up the temp too. This worked for me. Had the same problem as you for 6 months or more, lost a ton of guppies, bloated, stringy poo, not eating then death. It totally worked for me. Some kind of stubborn parasite going around that does not respond to metro.
 
Delapool said:
Below is a link to the ingredients in Tetra Parasite Guard. Was a little surprised this didn't work. I was going to look into treatments for camallanus worms. I don't think it is them but they seem the toughest worms to get rid of so anything getting rid if them should hopefully do the rest.
Click to expand...

Agreed, normally Parasite Guard is my go-to, guaranteed fix but every now and then it doesn't seem to do much good. Not sure if it's due to different strains or the parasites somehow adapt to it. Did a 60% water change last night, then dosed with Epsom salts and metronidazole so we'll see how they're doing when I get home. I thankfully did notice a bit of healthy poo from the sick angel over the weekend, so maybe the Epsom salt bath did him more good than I thought.

Thanks!
 
Matt68005 said:
Try a combination of Epsom salt, Malachite Green, Acriflavin, and formalin. I had the same problem recently, and I found that formula online from a very old very good fish breeder. It worked for my fish who had internal parasites and didn't respond to metro/prazipro. MAKE SURE DO NOT MIX METRONIDAZOLE WITH ANY ICK MED Do a big water change and wait a couple days, then try that treatment. The Acriflavin/MG you can find at Walmart called "ick cure" The MG/formalin they have at fish stores called Rid ich plus. Use them both at half strength for 5-6 days, and don't feed very much. I would up the temp too. This worked for me. Had the same problem as you for 6 months or more, lost a ton of guppies, bloated, stringy poo, not eating then death. It totally worked for me. Some kind of stubborn parasite going around that does not respond to metro.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate knowing what's worked well for others! Just started treatment with the metronidazole last night so I'll likely continue alternating with that and water changes for a few days, hopefully this will do the trick. Otherwise, another big water change and then I'll go the route that worked for you.
 
Matt68005 said:
Update?
Click to expand...

Thanks for asking, though I'm not entirely sure how to answer. So far I've treated the whole tank with 5 doses of the metronidazole and continued with the Epsom salts. Each dosage followed at least a 25% water change. Phantom has been acting a bit more like his normal self, actually eating some of the flake food, and his poop has been a combination of the healthy solid stuff and stringy white poo. My bolivian ram Sparky hasn't improved much but I'm not sure if he was even having the same problem.

As a whole, if ParasiteGuard doesn't work to clear up internal parasites, I'd vote for combining Epsom salts and zole. Thanks to everybody on this thread for the suggestions!
 
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